Twenty minutes northwest of Chestertown, and down a hilly, narrow road that ends up as a gravel driveway, a stately brick manor house rises over sweeping lawns and Adirondack chairs overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.
At first glance, it is easy to imagine Jack Kennedy or Ernest Hemingway toasting a Bay sunset with raised brandy snifters.
According to manor house history, they were guests, along with Arthur Godfrey, Guy Lombardo, and Robert Mitchum, who might have taken advantage of the property’s private airfield, one of the few on the Eastern Shore in its day.
You have just discovered Great Oak Manor.
Originally built from ships’ ballast bricks in 1938, the 12,000 sq. ft. The Georgian-style house was designed as a private residence for Russell D’Oench, heir to the W. R. Grace shipping line.
After several ownerships throughout the decades, Great Oak Manor was recently purchased by husband and wife, Werten F.W. Bellamy and Jr. Kellye L. Walker, who saw in the Manor a unique opportunity in line with their desire to offer a boutique hotel and elegant retreat for corporate professionals to hold learning seminars in a restorative environment, while also continuing as a hotel for travelers looking for an idyllic and plush Chesapeake Bay retreat.
The couple, both with extensive backgrounds in corporate law, look to Great Oak Manor as a commitment to focusing on “the vital role strong relationships play in both people’s personal and professional lives,” and for those “who need smaller scale, restorative environments to support and further develop their relationship needs.”
“Our goal is to build loyal guests, not scale. We want the Manor to be a place where our guests can focus on the things that matter,” they write in the Manor prospectus.
Here, the Spy sat down with General Manager Brooks Bradbury, who brings decades of experience in the hospitality business to the new venture.
We welcome Kellye Walker and Werten Bellamy to the Eastern Shore and congratulate them for breathing new life into an architectural treasure.
This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more about Great Oak Manor, go here.
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